Week 9: Some Recollected Thoughts

# 15  After a meditative return flight, succeeded by a quiet interval of preening plumage, readjusting my crown and halo, I am again settled into a gloriously blossoming almond tree, ready to sing about this Learning2.0 odyssey. Back during Week 6, I skimmed over a number of Library2.0 articles without commenting. One in particular entitled: Web 2.0 and Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software by Michael Stephens, so tickled my feathers, I paused to find out FAQs about Kankakee Library's podcasts, explained in detail even a byzantine bird could comprehend. Excited by podcast possibilities I've begun planning a brief program of psaltery plucking and poetry to record. Kansas City Public Library's nicely designed subject pages (for instance, Our World Guide) utilizing RSS feeds are technologically exciting but the results once I clicked on a link seemed much less well organized because an RSS feed allows for more ephemeral data, more possible mental clutter. Now, a BizWiki, seems a solid idea for sharing and building upon each other's knowledge in a field. Imagine a wiki for all the lore we fabulous creatures have accumulated over the centuries!
# 16  "Why wiki, why wiki, oh, why wiki, cry I? It takes their shared knowledge for humans to fly." Just a bit of silliness before putting quill again to parchment to scribble about wikis, which like fowl, can live on hosted WikiFarms or exist free range on your own server. To regress to Week 7 discoveries, I skimmed over Wikis: A Beginner's Look, following a link in Resources to E-Rhetoric Wiki and Wide Open Spaces: Wikis, Ready or Not (too much to ingest), then backtracking to Using Wikis to Create Online Communities, which talks about wiki subject guides and community wikis. Being better informed I visited SJCPL Subject Guide for Pets which offered me books, links, tips in an easy to digest format. Next I dipped into the Book Lovers Wiki, a bibliophile's Turkish delight. (Oops, time for a real meal or I will be eating my words).
# 23  Even an ardent adventurer like myself must pause for supper before concluding her account.

Week 9: Podcasts, Video & Downloadable Audio, eBooks #20, #21, #22

# 20  Nestled on a remote branch, nibbling a leftover bliny, I am recovering from my visit to YouTube. A feather shuddering experience for a sensitive bird/person. Upon landing there had been too much to view. I immediately decided to select a Bird group, one with a number of members. Parrots had 118. You may smile, but it was a shock to realize these birdies were captive "pets" performing silly, ingratiating tricks. Then I came upon this supremely degrading instructional video: How to Clip a Bird's Wings! My human brain recognized what a useful tool this could be for parrot owners, so my angry bird claws seized upon it, and I soared away trembling from the visual realities of YouTube.
# 21  Legendary powers refreshed, I alighted at Podcast Alley for a quick survey of its territory with a Genre search of Education. This turned up instructive podcasts to teach me French, Spanish, Italian, or Chinese, as well as some rather odd subjects I'll not mention here. But then I spotted the perfect addition to my Bloglines nest - a series of lectures on lives of my old acquaintances, Constantine, Basil, and Alexis. Since there was no time to immerse myself in listening to our shared history, I used Podcast Alley's link to Lars Brownworth's website, 12 Byzantine Rulers, where I got the podcast feed url to put into Bloglines. What pleasure to anticipate hearing again the exploits of my famous friends while ingesting an evening meal!
# 22  Landed at last in familar surroundings: eBooks. I'm not in the mood for NetLibrary's technical books, today. OverDrive Digital Library has an audiobook version of Saving Fish from Drowning I might sample (can one download to a nest?). Instead, I'm bird-hopping on to Project Gutenberg which I know has an online version of this classic avian favorite: The Phoenix and the Carpet by E. Nesbit. The best way I've found to browse if I haven't a title or author, is to try a keyword search from SJLibrary's WIRed page Free eBooks Online. But being especially fond of picture books, I'd rather open an illustrated The Hollow Tree Snowed-In Book or Max und Moritz at Children's Books Online. In International Children's Digital Library I met another fabulous creature El Amaru, a winged snake deity inhabiting the mountains and lakes of Peru. When I again have a desire to hear Beatrix Potter's stories read in English, French, German or Japanese just another hop will bring me to Wired for Books Kids Corner. This rapidly expanding eBooks country certainly provides many excellent perches for the curious mind of an Alkonost-Sirin.